1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a print control module of a thermal printer, and more particularly, to a print control module capable of utilizing a single motor to complete a printing operation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, color printers can be classified into four primary categories: dot matrix printers, inkjet printers, laser printers, and thermal sublimation (or thermal transfer) printers. Recently, the thermal sublimation printers have become increasingly popular due to their full tone printing capability. The thermal sublimation printer drives a thermal print head (TPH) to heat ribbons containing dyes. The dyes are thereafter transferred onto an object (i.e., the target object to be printed, for example, a sheet of paper). In this way, continuous-tone printing can be formed on the object according to the heating time or the heating temperature related to the thermal print head and the ribbons containing dyes.
In general, a print module of a thermal printer usually includes three components, such as a ribbon, a paper feed and a print head. In the conventional technology, these three components are driven (i.e., moved, rotated, powered, and so on) by three motors, which respectively execute steps such as driving, completing the ribbon search, feeding of paper, and printing. However, the utilization of three motors to achieve said component control will increase a total weight of the conventional thermal printer. Additionally, the conventional thermal printer's cost and electricity consumption are far from minimal especially considering that in some certain steps, two motors are required to complete a single operation (e.g., one of the said operations performed by one of the said components). As for a small and portable printer, in order to fulfill the portability requirement, the size of the printer has to be small, and the printer has to be light. Furthermore, portable printers often utilize a battery, therefore electricity consumption has to be low as well. Hence, the conventional thermal printer that utilizes the three motors cannot comply with the requirements of a small and portable printer. Therefore, the application of the conventional thermal printer is limited.